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Introduction to skeet shooting

Skeet shooting is a game that was invented to help bird hunters hone their wingshooting skills. Lots of people also play the sport for pure recreation and competition. The goal is to shoot as many clay targets as you can at different angles and heights.

Skeet shooting is an activity where you try to break clay disks –also known as pigeons – flung into the air at high speeds at different angles.

Ben Berka is a skeet shooting instructor. He says some people shoot for recreation and competition, while others do it to hone their accuracy for bird hunting.

"There's a number of gun clubs and public/private shooting facilities," he says. "It would be a good place to go out and see if you'd like to try the sport. Most of them welcome newcomers with open arms and it's a good social group at most of these facilities."

Berka says most people start out with a standard field-grade shotgun. He recommends a 12-or-20-gauge. Clay targets can be flung from a $20 hand thrower, or from automatic machines that cost several-thousand-dollars. The standard target disc is round, about four-and-a-quarter-inches in diameter, and about an-inch high.

The sport is played in a semi-circle with two traps launching the clay pigeons at different angles and heights. The shooter shoots from seven positions in the semi-circle, and one between the traps. The goal is to break as many clay pigeons as you can, and Berka says the most important fundamental is to always keep your focus on the target.

"Clay target shooting is a lot more like playing ball sports where you've got to focus on the ball and kind of let it come into your glove," says Berka. "If you're looking in your sites on the shotgun, that would be kind of the equivalent of looking at your baseball glove while you're getting a fast-ball thrown at you."

You don't have to shoot in registered competition. Lots of people take their gun and a few clay targets out to the back-40 simply for fun and to practice their aim.